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Study: Suspensions harm 'well-behaved' kids

January 8, 2015

January 8, 2015

It’s a belief repeated every day by teachers, principals and parents of rule-abiding children: Suspending disruptive students will allow the rest of the class to settle down and learn. But a new, large study calls this rationale into question.

The study is believed to be the first to look closely at the academic performance of individual students who have never been suspended, but who attend schools where others are suspended. After tracking nearly 17,000 students over three years, two Midwestern researchers found that high rates of school suspensions harmed math and reading scores for non-suspended students.

The relationship was inverse: The higher the number of suspensions during the course of a semester, the lower the non-suspended students’ scores on end-of-semester reading and math evaluations, said Brea L. Perry, a sociologist at Indiana University and co-author of the study with Edward W. Morris, a sociologist at the University of Kentucky. The study, which was published in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal American Sociological Review, involved students in 17 middle schools and high schools in a Kentucky school district.

The higher the number of suspensions during the course of a semester, the lower the non-suspended students’ scores on end-of-semester reading and math evaluations, the study found.

“What surprised us the most was this had not really been studied this way before,” Perry said. The findings suggest that high levels of suspensions “can have a very negative effect on those so-called ‘good apples,’ or rule-abiding students,” she said.

The findings were “robust,” Morris said, even when the results were controlled for the level of violence and disruption at schools, school funding and student-teacher ratios.

A low or average rate of suspensions appeared to have no academic impact on the non-suspended students, Perry said. “It only becomes harmful when schools are above average in their use of suspensions,” she said.

Credit: Edward Morris

Edward Morris

The reason, theorized Morris, whose work has focused on school environments and cultures, might have to do with the levels of anxiety and disconnection created in students when their peers are subject to frequent suspensions, often for issues such as dress code violations or insubordination.

“When you are in a very punitive environment, you’re getting the message that the school is focusing on crime control and behavior control,” he said. “Schools should really be about relationships.”

“This is a new addition to the research, and a positive one,” said Daniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project and editor of the new book, Closing the School Discipline Gap. Other studies have found that when schools reduce suspension rates and institute alternative methods of resolving conflict, academic achievement goes up, Losen said. But he said he wasn’t aware of a study that specifically examined the academic effects of suspensions on non-suspended students over time.

“The studies I’ve seen are not of this magnitude,” said Laura Faer, statewide education rights director for the Public Counsel Law Center, a California public interest law firm that has been promoting alternative disciplinary measures.

Going Deeper

Faer said that when she speaks about school discipline practices to groups, the number one comment from the audience is that suspensions are necessary because “when you remove bad kids, it helps other kids learn.” This new study, she said, takes research about the importance of a positive school culture, and the harms of an excessively punitive culture, “to a whole different level.”

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown has signaled a growing commitment on the part of the state to find more positive approaches to disciplining students, most notably through his signature on a new law, Assembly Bill 420, which limits the use of “willful defiance” as a reason to suspend students. The term is defined as disruptive behavior or defiance of authority. More than 700,000 school suspensions were recorded in California in 2010-11, according to Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, author of the bill.

In a blog post discussing the study, Perry wrote, “Researchers and child advocates have argued that contemporary disciplinary policies create winners and losers, often along racial and socioeconomic lines. Our research suggests that there are no winners.”

Comments Policy

Chastity King3 months ago3 months ago

I came across your article while researching what in-school suspension does to children that are going through the suspension. I never thought of the possibility of it having a negative effect on the other children. My son suffers from clinical depression and is in his third in-school suspension this year. His first was for talking during a guest speaker and when asked if he was ready to start, he replied 'I am If you are.' … Read More

I came across your article while researching what in-school suspension does to children that are going through the suspension. I never thought of the possibility of it having a negative effect on the other children. My son suffers from clinical depression and is in his third in-school suspension this year. His first was for talking during a guest speaker and when asked if he was ready to start, he replied ‘I am If you are.’ He got three days. The next suspension was for being on the side of the girls locker room, not in, sitting waiting on the other boys who dressed out for gym. This one is for being in a name calling argument while in the cafeteria. He is in ninth grade. I went to the school for a scheduled meeting with his principal and told her that he cannot mentally handle isolation all day, that he comes home and shakes for an hour and paces and his depression worsens. I told her of he needed discipline at school that I would like an alternate one to which she totally pretended I wasn’t asking. So long story short, my son and I are doing some research and writing a paper on what in-school suspension does to children with depression or not and how it doesn’t help the children to be isolated from the other students. Where he goes to school the children in suspension are not allowed to have a normal lunch, they are given a cold sandwich, chips, and a milk. When he asked for water, he was told no he could only have the milk and a sandwich that he couldn’t eat because it had expired two months previous. Thank you for your article.

belynda4 months ago4 months ago

I firmly believe that a school's job is to teach all students regardless of race, sex, disability or personality type conflicts. This whole teach-to-the-test and over-focus on academics has the opposite effect it is meant to have. I believe we need to teach kindness, empathy, conflict resolution and other non-punitive approaches. Are these skills any less needed to be a functioning whole adult able to navigate this harsh world?
I am very disappointed at many of … Read More

I firmly believe that a school’s job is to teach all students regardless of race, sex, disability or personality type conflicts. This whole teach-to-the-test and over-focus on academics has the opposite effect it is meant to have. I believe we need to teach kindness, empathy, conflict resolution and other non-punitive approaches. Are these skills any less needed to be a functioning whole adult able to navigate this harsh world?

I am very disappointed at many of the comments in this section as there are no throw-away children in our society. Whatever happened to problem solving and mutual respect? When children are a part of creating rules and class circles to problem solve issues, there is less discipline issues.

Children are not little trained monkeys who are bad or good. Nor are the empty vessels to be filled. They are little human beings who have all the ranges of emotions and frustrations that we do.The difference is their young brains are not fully developed yet. The parts of our brain that deal with impulse control and empathy are not fully developed until our early twenties.

I believe that our expectations of students to be mindless drones and to never “misbehave” is not healthy or realistic. Students will act out; they will say and do many stupid things and so we as adults whose brains are fully developed must expect it and work with children not against them or talk down to them.

Teachers and adults should do a little self-reflection. Are we perfect? When was the last time you went off an a colleague, or had a road rage incident? Obviously extreme violence and or weapons or drugs can and should be handled differently. Most expulsions from school and or in-school suspensions are not at all violent in nature. Maybe we as adults should have realistic expectations of children. This does not mean that they are not held accountable. Children who are punitively punished spend much of the time being mad they are in trouble or angry at being treated unfairly and not being heard. They are way less likely to have genuine remorse or to feel inclined to stop the behavior next time.

I do not think that compliance at all costs all the time is healthy or possible.

Renee10 months ago10 months ago

Hmm... do the researchers know that correlation does not equal causation? "The reason, theorized..." very well could explain the results, but having working with students for longer than the 3 years this research is based on, I disagree that their reasons theorized are the ones responsible for the results. The more probable cause of harm to "well-behaved" students when there are a large amounts of suspensions for the bad-behaved kids seems to be … Read More

Hmm… do the researchers know that correlation does not equal causation? “The reason, theorized…” very well could explain the results, but having working with students for longer than the 3 years this research is based on, I disagree that their reasons theorized are the ones responsible for the results. The more probable cause of harm to “well-behaved” students when there are a large amounts of suspensions for the bad-behaved kids seems to be that the bad behavior disrupts the learning environment greatly. Major defiance stops teachers from teaching, and kids from learning. And well-behaved kids will suffer from anxiety and low performance when they are directly affected by the bad-behaving students.

David Rader II9 months ago9 months ago

I agree with you Renee.
They're saying something equivalent to "in areas where people are more likely to know how to swim, i.e., living on a coastline, they're also more likely to drown, so we should stop teaching people how to swim."
I just came across this article doing some research after reading about a girl getting beaten death in school and another kid stomped on. How does stomping brain injury into a kid not bring down … Read More

I agree with you Renee.

They’re saying something equivalent to “in areas where people are more likely to know how to swim, i.e., living on a coastline, they’re also more likely to drown, so we should stop teaching people how to swim.”

I just came across this article doing some research after reading about a girl getting beaten death in school and another kid stomped on. How does stomping brain injury into a kid not bring down education? Some of these statistic abusers really need to stop picking the apples and check out the roots of the tree.

Herpderp10 months ago10 months ago

Look at all these anecdotal comments from the older generations. This was a study with a sample size of 17,000. Your personal observations and describing how you feel contributes nothing of relevance. Cite someone who has actually taken the time to do the research if you want to argue against this.

jim10 months ago10 months ago

I know a child who gets suspended weekly; he does terrible in school.

Richard Weathers11 months ago11 months ago

Horse apples! Obviously, the behaviors which elicited the suspensions were the upsetting, detracting factors. I swear, sociologists always manufacture ways to minimize or excuse bad behavior. The mantra of sociology is that people are neither responsible for their bad behavior nor liable for its consequences.

Christen Davenport1 year ago1 year ago

And you feel you can actually correlate suspensions with test scores of non suspended kids…seriously? Well, I guess because of this study we should definitely not suspend the kid who told his class to “shut the — up” or pushed another teacher out of his way because clearly that will bring down test scores. Absolutely ridiculous!

Disagree3 years ago3 years ago

I disagree with this “new” study. Stop making excuses for bad behavior. Much more teaching and learning happens when there are less disruptions!

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

So true. Asians can be starving and not act like that. There is little misbehavior among kids in Korea and even poor nations like Vietnam, in school. In fact in African American communities in the South when there was tremendous poverty, in the '40s and before, there was far less misbehavior in school. Look at Alcatraz, it was mostly white, African Americans were underrepresented. Now poverty is seen as a … Read More

So true. Asians can be starving and not act like that. There is little misbehavior among kids in Korea and even poor nations like Vietnam, in school. In fact in African American communities in the South when there was tremendous poverty, in the ’40s and before, there was far less misbehavior in school. Look at Alcatraz, it was mostly white, African Americans were underrepresented. Now poverty is seen as a license to act out, including among poor whites, Latinos, etc. Rubbish. Balderdash. If you look at the comparisons, poor people now would be considered rich 50 years ago. It’s culture, country music, rap music, movies lionizing bad kids like ‘Expelled’. People who complain they are so poor they got suspended often have nicer clothes than kids who are richer and don’t get suspended. It’s about behavior not income and not race. Kids from Africa who are immigrants get suspended far less than white kids. It’s ridiculous to say if you are poor it is understandable you act like a jerk and ruin education for others.

Don3 years ago3 years ago

Floyd, you just said:

“People who complain they are so poor they got suspended often have nicer clothes than kids who are richer and don’t get suspended. It’s about behavior not income and not race.”

I cannot count how many times you have blamed racism for the failure of some to succeed in school.

Is there any issue for you to hold two completely contrary views simultaneously or do you just change your mind minute to minute?

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

Historical racism not individual racism. We need to make a sacrifice to make up for past racism. Otherwise it takes 1,000 years, too long in my view. I believe Obama gained as many votes as he lost by being black, just my opinion.

Don3 years ago3 years ago

When you say “we have to ” how about you? Your children attend schools with the lowest AA populations in the city.

I sent my younger one to one of the most diverse schools in the city. The older chose for himself.

Put up or shut up.

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

My kids are underrepresented minorities and increased that. I increased the AA percentage. They also were more diverse when I bought a house, Alamo was 6% black before the stupid lottery made it 0.5. I am lucky I was able to buy one house. I can't sell and buy and pay 60k to realtors due to board of ed policy. I'm not as rich as you. I also believe … Read More

My kids are underrepresented minorities and increased that. I increased the AA percentage. They also were more diverse when I bought a house, Alamo was 6% black before the stupid lottery made it 0.5. I am lucky I was able to buy one house. I can’t sell and buy and pay 60k to realtors due to board of ed policy. I’m not as rich as you. I also believe in public schools and you know many in our neighborhood look down on public schools. I don’t think only those who have kids at schools in the Bayview can speak out on historical racism. If more whites were in the public system, we’d be able to have all diverse schools. They have schools which are almost zero percent black to appease white flight as they are terrified of it. It kills PTAs. All said, I reduced segregation.. I didn’t increase it.

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

You have no interest in improving outcomes for all students?

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

I do. That's why we need to change our core culture. If certain groups far outperform others, why don't we focus on public service announcements extolling those who excel and encouraging all parents to put more time into helping their kids excel? We know what works but we ignore it to be politically correct and then watch another generation consign their futures to poverty just for a few thousand childhood hours of … Read More

I do. That’s why we need to change our core culture. If certain groups far outperform others, why don’t we focus on public service announcements extolling those who excel and encouraging all parents to put more time into helping their kids excel? We know what works but we ignore it to be politically correct and then watch another generation consign their futures to poverty just for a few thousand childhood hours of TV and playing games out of a lifetime of 700,000 hours of poverty for themselves and their children.

Joseph Rudnicki3 years ago3 years ago

This is an interesting beginning, as most "break through" studies. Well, it may or may not be a break through. We have to see. But, what is interesting is the responses thus far. I appreciate the "challenges" stated, but I want to be open to the possibility that this is true.
Yes, of course, it needs further refinement and exploration from more vantage points, but this could be interesting, and lead to … Read More

This is an interesting beginning, as most “break through” studies. Well, it may or may not be a break through. We have to see. But, what is interesting is the responses thus far. I appreciate the “challenges” stated, but I want to be open to the possibility that this is true.

Yes, of course, it needs further refinement and exploration from more vantage points, but this could be interesting, and lead to some refinements and improvements to our schools (both public and private)–for those “Charter” comments…folks we’re all in this together, and you (Charters) clearly haven’t captured ALL the good, nor are we public participants all bad. (Check the research).

Anewattitude3 years ago3 years ago

I think this study overlooks a very key issue that is not addressed here. 1) students do feel anxiety and yes, fear when they are surrounded by those who willingly and knowingly break the rules. Every time a kid gets pulled out of class sent out of class, the flow of learning stops! Whether it is an office aid coming in with a pass for a kid or a phone call from the office calling … Read More

I think this study overlooks a very key issue that is not addressed here. 1) students do feel anxiety and yes, fear when they are surrounded by those who willingly and knowingly break the rules. Every time a kid gets pulled out of class sent out of class, the flow of learning stops! Whether it is an office aid coming in with a pass for a kid or a phone call from the office calling a kid out. 2) kids who are prone to violating school guidelines and expectations are also the ones most prone to being verbally abusive towards adults, other students and are in general more hostile. This hostility is frightening to kids who are not from environments like that or who avoid those types of environment. The continuation of research that ignores the elephant in the middle of the room does nothing to protect those kids who are “law-abiding” kids. Sometimes you have no choice but to remove those who break the law. This type of issue needs to be dealt with on the Administration and community level. It is impossible for teachers in most cases to establish meaningful relationships and spend time as counselors and therapists in order to fix, change, enrich the few that seek to break down the learning environment. Next research idea? Ways to improve the quality of our children’s family life.

Ray Salazar3 years ago3 years ago

I wonder if strong, professional teacher-student relationships had impact on lower suspensions and, therefore, higher scores. If these relationships are bad, I see how lots of suspensions could affect the school’s climate and student learning.

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

Adolescent males who act out against authority gain approval from non acting out peers.

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

Keep the focus on improving the learning environment. Other people are studying and working with families.

Susan Blackwell3 years ago3 years ago

There is a good reason why statisticians do not suggest causation from an observational study. Would it be reasonable to believe the higher the number of suspensions, the higher the instances of disruptive behavior resulting valuable learning time to be lost for all students.

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

The study provides a correlational relationship between the two variables, not a cause and effect relationship. Further study will be required to discern the deeper issues.

T Kowalchuk3 years ago3 years ago

The title is somewhat misleading and implies a causal relationship. In truth, what appears to be the case is that there is a corelation between schools with a high suspension rate and student achievement. This would appear to indicate that in schools where there was a climate that was charactized by punitive measures such as suspensions and was less focus on positive relationships, students did not perform as well as those in schools … Read More

The title is somewhat misleading and implies a causal relationship. In truth, what appears to be the case is that there is a corelation between schools with a high suspension rate and student achievement. This would appear to indicate that in schools where there was a climate that was charactized by punitive measures such as suspensions and was less focus on positive relationships, students did not perform as well as those in schools with more positive climates.

Suspensions would therfore be a symptom, not a cause. That suspensions harm well behaved students, as the title suggests, would therefore be false. Suspensions in and of themselves do not harm the students – a school culture where suspensions are the norm is less likely to support student acheivement than a more nurturing culture.

Don3 years ago3 years ago

The further California goes down the utopian yellow brick road looking for a brain, a heart, courage and the way back home the more steam builds up in the engine of the charter industry to counter the foolishness of traditional public school policy. I get no pleasure out of seeing politicians attack the respect for education ( from which all learning derives), but I do get a modicum of relief knowing that at least some … Read More

The further California goes down the utopian yellow brick road looking for a brain, a heart, courage and the way back home the more steam builds up in the engine of the charter industry to counter the foolishness of traditional public school policy. I get no pleasure out of seeing politicians attack the respect for education ( from which all learning derives), but I do get a modicum of relief knowing that at least some charters are there to give people an alternative to this madness. KIPP comes to mind.

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

It’s a correlational relationship between the two variables, which is interesting, but how do you then go on to draw unsupported conclusions?

More study is required.

TheMorrigan3 years ago3 years ago

Can someone tell me if this study is addressing students being suspended from class or students who were suspended from school?

There is a difference between class suspension and school suspension. Or did the study lump them together?

Jaclyn3 years ago3 years ago

Is it, perhaps, a result of the ongoing behavior of the suspended students throughout the semester/year rather than the suspension itself? How can this be separated in a study?

jmto3 years ago3 years ago

Morris's theory that the results "might have to do with the levels of anxiety and disconnection created in students when their peers are subject to frequent suspensions" doesn't ring true to me. Whereas most educators agree that suspension should be used sparingly, I suspect that academic scores are higher in schools with lower suspension rates because those high-achieving schools likely serve greater numbers of children who behave appropriately (because they have the wherewithal to do … Read More

Morris’s theory that the results “might have to do with the levels of anxiety and disconnection created in students when their peers are subject to frequent suspensions” doesn’t ring true to me. Whereas most educators agree that suspension should be used sparingly, I suspect that academic scores are higher in schools with lower suspension rates because those high-achieving schools likely serve greater numbers of children who behave appropriately (because they have the wherewithal to do so). As a teacher, I’m all for alternative conflict resolution and positive approaches, but I’ve also been in circumstances when I’ve breathed a sigh of relief when a truly disruptive student has been removed (temporarily and after other options failed). And I think the so-called good apples were relieved, too. Violent, threatening, and disturbing behavior from other students creates its own “levels of anxiety” in a classroom. I wish more researchers would turn their attention to studying what kind of schools these ‘bad apples’ actually want to attend, places where they want to behave.

Don3 years ago3 years ago

Well put, Shannon, jmto and Jaclyn ( and you too Andrew with that classic comment). Thank you in injecting a little common sense into this "conversation". I hope that peer mediators and other interveners of Restorative Practices show more respect for the views of others than does Ms. Adams. It is notable here in SFUSD that no funding has gone to implement disciplinary reforms and after years of RP no appreciable increase in student … Read More

Well put, Shannon, jmto and Jaclyn ( and you too Andrew with that classic comment). Thank you in injecting a little common sense into this “conversation”. I hope that peer mediators and other interveners of Restorative Practices show more respect for the views of others than does Ms. Adams. It is notable here in SFUSD that no funding has gone to implement disciplinary reforms and after years of RP no appreciable increase in student achievement has taken place that could back up their efficacy even while ADA has increased as a result. High performing students continue to excel and low performers continue not to while SFUSD, social justice talk central, has the highest achievement gap in the state.

This article makes me question the professionalism and impartiality of Ed Source. Among other things of substance regarding this study, what bothers me about this article is the lack of balanced reporting. Is Ms. Adams a mouthpiece for her preferred reforms like any other commenters or is she a reporter? Is Ed Source just a mouthpiece for extremist left-wing ideology? Teaching unions, where the core of social justice activism resides, have expressed lukewarm support for bans in the hope of getting funding for the alternatives with no success.

A little research and demonstrated a “social justice” bias for the authors and the reporter presented the information as academic, without regard to scrutiny. No academic study is going to override the learned experiences derived by teachers over decades. Why do extremist continue to attack high stakes testing as unfair and non-representative while using test data to support statistically driven assumptions?

Daniel3 years ago3 years ago

Hmm. I too have breathed a sigh of relief when a disruptive student was not in my classroom. High quality research of this nature makes me consider what impact my relief had on the climate I was creating.
My reading of this research is nuanced. It appears that there is a tipping point. Schools that resort to frequent suspensions in a misguided belief that they are "getting tough" are not creating an environment that supports … Read More

Hmm. I too have breathed a sigh of relief when a disruptive student was not in my classroom. High quality research of this nature makes me consider what impact my relief had on the climate I was creating.
My reading of this research is nuanced. It appears that there is a tipping point. Schools that resort to frequent suspensions in a misguided belief that they are “getting tough” are not creating an environment that supports long term academic achievement for a) suspended students (obviously); b) never suspended students

Ken3 years ago3 years ago

What about within schools where the variables change together from year to year?

Shannon Gluth3 years ago3 years ago

Well your data is dead on correct but you just do not synthesize the information contained correctly. The reason why scores are low where suspension is high is because the "bad kids" practically have to set the room on fire with a gun in their hand whilst juggling flaming ninja swords to actually get suspended due mostly to the fact that every 10 seconds some researcher publishes a "study" proving suspension … Read More

Well your data is dead on correct but you just do not synthesize the information contained correctly. The reason why scores are low where suspension is high is because the “bad kids” practically have to set the room on fire with a gun in their hand whilst juggling flaming ninja swords to actually get suspended due mostly to the fact that every 10 seconds some researcher publishes a “study” proving suspension does not work. In the meantime those “bad kids” have tortured their classmates and teachers and have sucked up the lions share of educational time with their disrespect and disruption. All the time a teacher has to use documenting and give a 15th chance to make a better decision to a kid who could care less is stolen from the rest of the kids who just want to learn. You want your “scores” to go up (because that’s all teaching is anymore) then remove students who don’t want to be students. Stop catering to the lowest factors and start giving all that attention to those who want to reach their highest potential.

Don3 years ago3 years ago

I'm not able to access the study itself at the link provided unless I pay a hefty fee so I cannot comment on it firsthand. It's clear to me that Ms. Adams supports the study results having offered nothing to balance out the reporting. I'd like to know more about the study itself rather than the assumptions the authors and reporter have made about the findings.
For example, I don't know whether the schools … Read More

I’m not able to access the study itself at the link provided unless I pay a hefty fee so I cannot comment on it firsthand. It’s clear to me that Ms. Adams supports the study results having offered nothing to balance out the reporting. I’d like to know more about the study itself rather than the assumptions the authors and reporter have made about the findings.

For example, I don’t know whether the schools with high suspension rates are high due to poor suspension practices or higher numbers of recalcitrant students. It is possible and likely that schools with higher numbers of low performing students also have higher numbers of middling students in which case the latter might be more susceptible to the issues of their slightly lower performing peers whereas students with higher academic and behavioral standards might be less susceptible. This is, in effect, not unlike another recent study out of Yale Law Journal that demonstrated differentiated outcomes for the various performing groups at unionized schools. That is, there are more unanswered questions for me than answered ones.

But let’s assume the findings could hold up over time and to a broader sampling. Here in California with a partial statewide suspension ban not a penny has been allocated specifically to hire staff for Restorative Practices while teachers retain the right to remove students from the classroom. If a legitimate case can be made for the inefficacy of suspensions, the replacement with counseling, peer mediation and other Restorative Practice interventions has to be funded.

Curiously, when I googled this story up came an article that spoke to the failure of in-school suspensions.

.catalyst-chicago.org/news/2011/10/13/suspending-progress

The article ended like this:

After the first in-school suspension attendant left, Stansberry put a student advocate in the in-school suspension room, with a promise that he would be able to resume his normal duties as soon as she could find a replacement.

About a month and a half later, she replaced the advocate with Lonnie Felters Jr., a physical education teacher who was still working on obtaining his certification to teach in Illinois.

“He has a good relationship with students,” Stansberry says of Felters. “He will be fine.”

Felters started out with a good attitude about the position.

But by the end of the year, he was not happy. He had shoved a bookshelf against the backdoor to keep students from escaping. The same kids were in there on a regular basis. Many of them were special education students with behavior problems who, by state law, could not be given more than 10 days of out-of-school suspension.

Most of them refused to do any work and instead spent their day just trying to bother the other students. “One bad apple can ruin it for the whole group,” he said.

Felters says he wishes he could limit the number of students sent to in-school suspension or that there were multiple teachers who could work with students one-on-one. He also says he thought a dean should be in the room so that they could threaten out-of-school suspension and it would be a real threat.

“Sometimes I wake up in the morning and dread coming here,” he says. “It is that bad.”

Don – Bottom line? You don’t get rid of suspensions because some people abuse them. If it’s an abuse to suspend a student unfairly it is also an abuse not to suspend a student who for good reason needs to be removed to maintain the positive instructional environment in a classroom..

Andrew3 years ago3 years ago

Count your blessings, Don, if you aren't able to access the full text of the article. I did and I want to go bang my head into a wall for relief from the resounding psychobabble.
The authors start with the proposition that incarcerating criminals is bad for the unincarcerated in society and then posit that getting troublemakers out of classrooms is similarly traumatic for those who remain, adversely affecting their performance thereafter! … Read More

Count your blessings, Don, if you aren’t able to access the full text of the article. I did and I want to go bang my head into a wall for relief from the resounding psychobabble.

The authors start with the proposition that incarcerating criminals is bad for the unincarcerated in society and then posit that getting troublemakers out of classrooms is similarly traumatic for those who remain, adversely affecting their performance thereafter! Then, surprise, the authors complete an analysis which they claim verifies what they posited.

Supposed correlation is confused with apparent causation. If lots of cars are found in garages, then going into a garage makes me more likely to become a car.

But wait . . . a sprinkle of stardust . . . poof . . . suddenly I see the light and am overcome by the authors’ irrefutable logic. At their strident urging, I realize how much better off society would be if the criminals now in prison were on the streets and how subliminally traumatized I am over the fact that criminals are incarcerated. I think back to my 9th grade algebra class and I realize the error of my ways back then in wishing, hoping, dreaming that someone would suspend or kick out “Greg” the disruptive class bully who consumed huge amounts of the math teacher’s time with his disruptive antics, his assaults of fellow students. I didn’t know it, but the authors prove statistically that I’d have been horribly traumatized if “Greg” had been removed from the class and the math teacher was allowed to teach algebra to me without Greg’s constant disruption. Hug a criminal or disruptor today. They are good for you whether or not you realize it and you under appreciate them.

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

Brilliant! So true!

Daniel3 years ago3 years ago

The statistics on suspension are pretty clear. The majority of students aren't suspended for setting a room on fire or juggling ninja swords or that type of behaviour. Most suspensiosn are for kids talking out of turn, not doing prescribed work, etc. Unquestionably disruptive and irritating but nowhere near as dangerous as your comments would suggest.
I have one question: What do you propose for the kids that don't want to students? Again the literature … Read More

The statistics on suspension are pretty clear. The majority of students aren’t suspended for setting a room on fire or juggling ninja swords or that type of behaviour. Most suspensiosn are for kids talking out of turn, not doing prescribed work, etc. Unquestionably disruptive and irritating but nowhere near as dangerous as your comments would suggest.
I have one question: What do you propose for the kids that don’t want to students? Again the literature and societal expectations are clear. Those without an education are more likely to have lower paying jobs, suffer diminished health, end up in jail, etc. And all of this cost taxpayers $$.
My view is that education is for everyone. I think the discussion should be how do we support these students so they can be educated?

Frances O'Neill Zimmerman3 years ago3 years ago

I am not surprised to read such odd "study" results in this newly fashionable climate of "restorative justice." Obviously, a school awash with suspensions is not a positive learning environment for anyone -miscreants, well-behaved classmates, teachers, principals or front-office secretaries. It's a zoo.
Suspensions in general are a draconian last resort and by definition cannot serve an educational end, most especially for the suspended kid. But removing a bad-actor from the classroom to some other … Read More

I am not surprised to read such odd “study” results in this newly fashionable climate of “restorative justice.” Obviously, a school awash with suspensions is not a positive learning environment for anyone -miscreants, well-behaved classmates, teachers, principals or front-office secretaries. It’s a zoo.

Suspensions in general are a draconian last resort and by definition cannot serve an educational end, most especially for the suspended kid. But removing a bad-actor from the classroom to some other supervised place on the campus IS a good idea and essential. It allows the rest of the class and instructor to re-group and continue to work and it underscores the classroom as a kind of sacred space.

el3 years ago3 years ago

What an interesting study. I commend the authors for thinking outside the box.
I wonder if the lesson is a little more nuanced than the headline. It sounds like in particular what is harmful to kids is not that other kids are removed, but a sense that those kids are punished arbitrarily, unfairly, or harshly, in a way that leaves the remaining students anxious for their own status.
I remain skeptical about the value of suspensions … Read More

What an interesting study. I commend the authors for thinking outside the box.

I wonder if the lesson is a little more nuanced than the headline. It sounds like in particular what is harmful to kids is not that other kids are removed, but a sense that those kids are punished arbitrarily, unfairly, or harshly, in a way that leaves the remaining students anxious for their own status.

I remain skeptical about the value of suspensions at all as a punishment. It has always seemed to me that sending a kid home is in general a relief to the student, and also damages their grades and potentially puts them in a position where they cannot succeed (because of missed assignments etc). I think we can find better ways, like community service, etc, that will be far more productive and educational. Removing a kid from a classroom may be needed, but there are other options besides sending the kid home.

Paul Muench3 years ago3 years ago

That’s exactly what I hear. Usually the teacher’s back is turned so out of a sense of “fairness” more kids are punished than is justified in the eyes of the other students. I hear this for all levels of discipline not just suspensions.

Paul Muench3 years ago3 years ago

It’s great when research can confirm what your children tell you when they come home from school.

FloydThursby19413 years ago3 years ago

There need to be consequences. If you think it's OK to disrupt class because it amuses you or you want attention, you won't be an effective employee for a corporation one day. The greater good of the bulk of students learning and improving their futures is more important than the rights of troublemakers to hurt others and keep others down to their level. There should be a place for suspended kids to … Read More

There need to be consequences. If you think it’s OK to disrupt class because it amuses you or you want attention, you won’t be an effective employee for a corporation one day. The greater good of the bulk of students learning and improving their futures is more important than the rights of troublemakers to hurt others and keep others down to their level. There should be a place for suspended kids to go, but look what happens when there are no consequences. Teachers can’t get fired, so it’s fairly routine for teachers to take days off when they aren’t sick and don’t need them. Kids can’t get suspended, so they will act out more, and good kids will suffer. We need to raise standards of behavior. Lying (which includes missing work when you aren’t really sick) and disruptions both harm kids. There should be minimum standards of behavior in our society. In the ’50s it was unheard of for kids to be willfully defiant, and it was unheard of for teachers to miss work when they weren’t sick. Both acts of violence and willful defiance in school and teacher absences were under a third what they are now. We’ve gone way too far in terms of this anything goes mentality. We blame the schools for the achievement gap, not kids who aren’t studying. Let’s find the real culprit here.

Nobody3 years ago3 years ago

Nowhere do the authors state that there should be no punishment whatsoever. The point being made, in my opinion, is that suspensions are often abused by the schools, and can often have a negative impact on the good kids (which will in turn hurt their chances of being "effective employees at a corporation one day"). There are many articles and studies on how suspensions are bad for the kids being suspended, but this is the … Read More

Nowhere do the authors state that there should be no punishment whatsoever. The point being made, in my opinion, is that suspensions are often abused by the schools, and can often have a negative impact on the good kids (which will in turn hurt their chances of being “effective employees at a corporation one day”). There are many articles and studies on how suspensions are bad for the kids being suspended, but this is the first (that I know of) that shows that suspensions are also bad for the rest of the school population.